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Formatting

Structural Requirements, Style Guidelines, and Templates

Ensure Compliance Before You Submit

Before submitting your thesis for preliminary evaluation, your manuscript must comply with the formatting standards set by the School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (SGPS). Adhering to these guidelines ensures your final work is professional, accessible, and ready for publication in Western University’s Open Repository.


Important to know

Core Structural Requirements

Every thesis must follow a standardized structural sequence. While individual chapters and appendices will reflect your specific research, the front matter must appear in a very specific order.

Policy Reference: For complete details on institutional standards, consult the official Senate-approved policy on Procedures for Thesis Formats and Content.

Thesis Formatting Templates

Consistency in style and formatting of a thesis is essential. Tools for creating styles, footnotes, a table of contents, and other features, including the recommended order of the sections of a thesis, have been formatted into an SGPS thesis template available in WORD and LaTeX formats.

We strongly recommended that authors use a thesis template. A template can be applied at any stage of the writing process, but using one early on will simplify writing and later conversion. These templates are meant to assist you with the formatting and production of your thesis, but you must ensure that your thesis meets SGPS formatting requirements. If you prefer not to use an SGPS template you are free to use the tools provided for indexing, page numbering and so on provided by your word processing software.

Common Formatting Errors

The School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies reviews all theses prior to publication. For a complete listing of Thesis Formats and Content please refer to the Senate Academic Policy Procedures document, Procedures for Thesis Formats and Content.

Here is a list of the most common errors that cause a delay in the final publication of theses:

Title Page

Students must include a title page at the front of their thesis. To review those formatting requirements, please download the SGPS Word template.
Statement on the use/non-use of Generative Artificial Intelligence

This section must include a high-level overview of the use or non-use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) in the thesis. Non-use of AI should be stated explicitly.

The use of GenAI must not undermine the integrity of the research and the thesis including the originality of the student’s work.

In addition to this high-level overview, any use of GenAI in the generation, interpretation, or presentation of research content or knowledge must be appropriately documented or acknowledged throughout the thesis in
accordance with disciplinary standards.
Table of Contents

All preliminary pages (i.e. acknowledgements) should be included in your table of contents

 

For table of contents assistance in Microsoft Word, please visit: Insert a table of contents | Microsoft Support
Page Numbering

The body of your thesis is Page 1

 

All pages that precede Page 1 are to be numbered with Roman Numerals

 

For page numbering assistance in Microsoft Word, please visit: Insert page numbers | Microsoft Support
Contact Information

Do not include any signatures, email addresses, phone numbers or mailing addresses. This includes any appendices and your CV

 

Redact any signatures or contact information provided on documentation
Technical Requirements: The thesis must be submitted in .pdf, or .docx format and may also include supplementary files.